Daily Geekery; Two For the Price of One

I didn't get to post my daily geekery yesterday, the family went to Knotts Berry Farm. So here's double your pleasure of geekery awesomeness.


Less Than Three Ring by metalsmitten.


Nerd Dork Epresso Cups by trixiedelicious.

What's in a Ring?

Chainmaille jewelry is made out of jump rings and there are many aspects to these rings that determine the quality of these rings.

These rings can be made out of many types of metals. You coil wire and cut the coils into rings. Many maillers who make armor make themselves armor very cheaply this way by using fencing wire. Jewelry on the other hand is a bit more complicated.

Before you buy chainmaille jewelry, you should know what it's made of. Don't be afraid to ask if that information isn't readily available. If your mailler doesn't know or wont tell you, move on.

The most common metals used in chainmaille jewelry are bright aluminum and anodized aluminum, stainless steel, copper and enameled copper, bronze, jeweler's brass, niobium and anodized niobium, titanium and anodized titanium, sterling silver, argentium silver, gold-fill, gold and rubber. I'll get more in depth on these metals in my next article.

These rings are wound into coils and cut into rings. The rings can either be saw cut with a jeweler's saw:




or pinch cut with pliers.




I prefer saw cut rings as they have less snags and povide a more smoothe and even closure. This is especially important with softer metal as they can snag and then come open. A chain really is only as strong as it's weakest link. it is important to examine the rings on your jewelry and make sure they have a proper closure. this means both sides of the ring meet smooth and flush.

Here are some examples of poorly closed rings:




Most chainmaille jewelry is not soldered closed, this makes good closures especially important, you don't want jewelry that's going to fall apart right away. Here is some jewelry I've made with good closures, you can zoom in to get a good look at the closures:

New Stuff

Here's some new stuff I've recently listed in my shop. Starting from top left and working my way around clockwise we have: Stretchy Half Persian Bracelet, Purple Crystal Romanov Necklace, Rosettes Bracelet and Double Spiral Necklace. The stretchy bracelet can be customized with twelve different colors of anodized aluminum.
I'm loving the double spiral necklace, I almost don't want to sell it. If the crystals in the heart were blue I'd never be able to part with it.


I also finished my elfweave bracelet with the lapis lazuli. I love how this one turned out. The bronze of the rings really brings out the gold streaks in the stone. It's just amazing.

I'm working on a lot of earrings right now. I made some polyhedrons and some tao 3. I'm going to do a few pendants and then some bracelets. I've got a pile of pictures to get ready to post and then in a few days I'll list some new items. For now I'm off to bed, right after I finish this next bracelet.

Monique

What I made and what I'm working on

Yesterday I worked on six helm bracelets. I made them in red, green, blue, pink, orange and purple. I'm waiting for some more rings to come and then I'm going to make more in silver, yellow and rainbow. They're made with 16G 5/16" bright aluminum and Epdm, with 18G 3/16" anodized aluminum. I love colors, they're so much fun. I plan on making matching chokers and a million other colored bracelets of varying weaves. I really like the stretchy that the EPDM provides, it's nice to not have to worry about clasps. I made my kids a few stretchy bracelets for this reason, they can get them on and off themselves.

Right now I'm working on chainmaille wrapped cabochons. I've got three lapis lazuli cabochons 18 x 13mm ovals. I'm wrapping them in half persian 3 in 1 with braonze 20G 1/8" jump rings. I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to do when done. Probably bracelets, but I haven't decided what weave to use for the bracelets. Maybe GSG or half persian 3-1 sheet 6. Or maybe I'll do some japanese 12 in 2, which I've been wanting to do again for awhile. Hmmm, decisions, decisions.